Hi. I was wondering if anyone on here could tell the legality of forwarding 0871 numbers to businesses then advertising them without the permission or knowledge of the busines. There is a website called the Mobile Food Guide which lists restaurants with 0871 numbers without mentioning they are routed through the Mobile Food Guide and charged at a premium rate.

After contacting the Mobile Food Guide they denied these numbers were for profit and simply monitoring the volume of calls to particular restaurants. Can anyone tell me if this is allowed?

The Mobile Food Guide can be found here.

I think that your best bet would be to contact some of the restaurants. See what they say. Point out that would probably reflect badly on them if someone rings them and is charged 10p/min to call them. Also mention that rates are much higher from mobile phones. Find out what typical rates are.

It should be pointed out that if you were to use the site menu to look at a review of a particular restaurant, there is quite often a link to the restaurant's homepage, where you will usually find the true contact details, which are invariably a proper number.
Whilst I do have a level of objection to this site's use of 0871, in this instance I would think objections to be invalid.
They do not hide the restaurant's true details, and it can be viewed that they have done the work in compiling the data and setting up the site, so that if you cannot be bothered to attempt to find the number by other means (a click on the homepage or via BT) then you pay for the priviledge of utilising their efforts.

Michelin and the AA, amongst others, produce restaurant guides. These guides are in book form and must be purchased. Normally at a cost of several pounds. Nobody is objecting to the AA making a couple of quid out doing the same thing except theirs is on paper rather than electronically.

We are a restaurant company (sorry I didn't mention that in my first post). The site has listed our outlets like this without permission but it is hard to find infomation on whether or not this is legal. Dialing the number goes straight through without any warning about the charges.

"Hello directory enquiries..... this has just cost you 40p for the privilidge of talking to me, and a further charge of ??p per minute while I take my time looking up the number because I'm based in India and can't understand a word you foreigners are saying.
You'd like a restaurant in what town?.... Sorry can you spell that?  Was that a P? OK I understand now. One moment please.
Here you are, the number is 00000000000. Would you like me to connect you? No I don't how much extra it will cost, but obviously it will be a hell of a lot more than if you could be bothered to do it yourself! You would? Sucker!!
Just putting you through now. Have a nice day. By the way, please don't look at your phonebill"

"Hello restaurant, I'd like to book a table. Blah blah blah" and after 5 minutes of conversation, you end the call.

Now how much did that cost overall?
Is anybody getting upset because directory enquiries took you for a lot more than if you rang that 0871 number for 5 minutes? Same service. Similar ripoff. Less complaints.

The restaurant didn't agree for directory enquiries to charge that rate. Heck, I never entered an agreement for my listing to be on every directory service at ridiculous rates. Nothing I can do about it. Who do I have a go at? Directory enquiries? No,  because we know they're expensive. Do you have a go at me because you came through their service? I hope not. It's not my fault. Should I refund your costs? Not lilkely. There are other ways to find what you're after. The easiest way is not always the cheapest. I sympathise but that's it.

The link is clearly there on the web page. Use it to follow through to the homepage and it's OK. Most probably a maximum of 2 clicks from the original page. Perhaps that is too hard for some.
Or read the review, and look up the number on BT.

The only real complaint about the site is the failure to put the cost of using their service in an obvious spot.

Just spoken to Ofcom and apparently what they are doing is illegal and breaches the data protection act!

The difference between 118 providers putting you through, and the 0871 number, is that when a customer receives their phone bill, they will look at the 118 entry and associate it with calling for information about a number, rather than a restaurant booking.  Of course it's excessive but seeing the number on the bill, Mr or Mrs average will know that the bill was for looking up a number, rather than have a gripe with a restaurant.

If Mr or Mrs average looks at their bill, and notices a strange 0871 number on the bill, and possibly on a mobile contract bill, where all their other mobile and landlines are part of inclusive minutes but sees a 40p per minute charge for 0871, then Mr or Mrs average will call up and find out where this £2 call came from.  Upon finding out it's the restaurant they ate at last month, they will want answers from the restaurant as to why a premium rate number was used.

And of course, anyone buying the AA or Michelin guide will have knowingly purchased the book, and phoned the restaurant on their geo number.

I assume that each restaurant has a different 0871 number, and what they have is a separate contact number which is advertised without the knowledge of the restaurant.

Personally, I would question how it breaches the Data Protection Act - if they didn't get the information from the restaurant, then presumably they used publicly available information?  Also, OfCom is not the authorative source on the Data Protection Act - you need to refer to the Information Commissioner for that.  Judging by OfCon's other pronouncements, I would personally take their opinion with a pinch of salt.

Two things I do notice:

1. The home page of the site says "A restaurant guide ... FREE to use" - yes, it's free to refer to, but it's not free if you call one of the 0871 numbers - OK, you don't expect a 'phone call to be free, but neither do you expect it to be a premium rate when the guide is meant to be "FREE to use".

2. In the entries for the individual restaurants, the 'phone numbers are presented as if they are the restaurant's regular 'phone number - which reinforces the earlier comments about customers may well blame the restaurant if they get an excessive 'phone bill.